It's 20:30 (or 8:30 pm for you Americans), and Sarah and I want a burger. Ok, no problem, we shlepped along a brand new grill fromthe US. It's a nice one too. It's got a warming rack, and a nice little burner on the side so I can cook stuff. Like noodles or something. That goes good with meat right? I even paid some money to get a gas tank installed, I mean it's kind of hard to grill with out gas - or so I'm told.
Anyway, I figure, I live in Israel, the land of the Jews, the land of milk & honey, the land where they have completely kosher stores called Chocolate land and Candy Land. Surely I can run out to the local grocey and pick up some pre-made burgers or at least some ground beef.
So I run out to the grocery. I first look through the fresh meat case. Ummm. Nope, lots of chicken, I mean tons of chicken. Cutlets, shnitzel (thin cutlets), pieces, livers, even hearts. They have chicken hearts! But no meat.
Okay, off to the frozen meat section. First I get excited, a whole array of prepackaged meat stuff. But dissappointment settles in when I realize it's just veggie stuff. Okay next row - which when I mean row, I'm talking about a good 30 feet of frozen goods - what do I see, but more chicken! I mean I like chicken, but I want some meat - particularly the ground up kind that I can mold into a nice delicious burger, with a special bland of spices mixed in, and some BBQ sauce on top grilling in the open night air. Ahhhh. But I digress, I'm losing focus. Where's the beef!
Shuffling through the frozen chicken, I find the meat. But alas it's just hunks of meat. I mean I'm surprised as I haven't really seen this kind of stuff in the states. But no ground beef! I mean give me something. Even a small package of 1/2 a pound would do. I could make a burger out of that. But nothing!
I leave the store dejected. I wander around feeling down that I can't bring home the beef. What am I to do :(
I finally drag myself over to Grill Burger where I order up two burgers and sadly drive home with my find. I mean I'm a guy, I'm supposed to be killing my cow throwing it on the grill and calling it a dinner. Instead I have to resort to buying burgers, I mean who does that nowadays!
Well, If there's anything this outing has taught me, it's that I have to find myself a good butcher in this town of mine. And one that can grind me up some beef.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Heavenly Bodies
Tonight I saw my first satellite - with my own eyes. The ISS was passing overhead, and it was specifically visible to Israel.
Apropos to see my first heavenly body in Israel!
Oh, and since I was out there, and had a handy star chart, I was able to easily spot Jupiter.
I've been wanting that telescope for a long time now...
ht: life in Israel & Mike Winner
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The 9 Days
This past Wednesday I had a first.
It was the first time I attended a siyum during the nine days and got to eat meat!
It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.
The siyum though was for my downstairs neighbors son. He had just completed Shas mishnayos - for the second time. Oh yeah, and he hasn't even started yeshivah ketana (or high school) yet.
When his father spoke, he mentioned how all he did was just set a goal for himself, and then hit it. Even though we are just off of the 9 days, and we're supposed to be working on our sinas chinam, and how jealousy is one of the root causes of that. I can say that I am jealous of him, and how he was able to stick with his goal, and finally acheive it.
I believe this kind of jealousy is ok.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Which Superhero am I?
Your results:You are Superman
Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test
| You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others. |
Admitting you're wrong
There are sometimes in life where you just have to realize that you weren't meant to do something. In order to grow you have to know your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Yesterday, I came to a sad conclusion....I've should never be an ulpan teacher.
SL comes home earlier than his younger two brother (read previous post to find out why). So during this time we get to have MU time (Me & you = MU). So yesterday I asked him the usual questions: "How was school?", "What did you do today?", etc. So, he decided to tell me what he does during the day. As he's reviewing, davening, learning, hafsaka, etc., he mentions that during lunch rebbe sometime has a lotto. OK I think that's nice. Then SL complains "Why does rebbe always say pa'amayim by my name?" I think OK pa'am means time (as in one time). So pa'amayim means twice. But, just to make sure I take out my handy Hebrew/English dictionary. I'm scanning and I see what I think is what I'm looking for but, it says that it means "sometimes".
So this is when it goes downhill fast. I'm in loving, patient mother mood (read: I took a nap). So I say OK SL let's use it in a sentence to understand it better:
"Shimon Leib dachuf ach shelo....pa'amayim!"
"Shimon Leib daber chutzpa...pa'amayim!"
"Shimon Leib yeled tov...pa'amayim!"
Now he's rolling with laughter. Later AY comes comes home. We do the same thing with him. We're all in a joyful mood. Everyone is happy they learned a new word. I feel like a good mother, etc.
Then Eric gets home. We talk about they day and I proudly tell him what happened today and how I taught the children a new word. His face was first a smirk, then a giggle, then a full fledged roaring laughter. (For any of you who've seen Eric really laugh you know what I mean). He said Sarah, pa'amayim means twice, l'famim means sometimes."
Oh well, I guess I could always stretch out my maternity leave a little longer until I know the language better.
SL comes home earlier than his younger two brother (read previous post to find out why). So during this time we get to have MU time (Me & you = MU). So yesterday I asked him the usual questions: "How was school?", "What did you do today?", etc. So, he decided to tell me what he does during the day. As he's reviewing, davening, learning, hafsaka, etc., he mentions that during lunch rebbe sometime has a lotto. OK I think that's nice. Then SL complains "Why does rebbe always say pa'amayim by my name?" I think OK pa'am means time (as in one time). So pa'amayim means twice. But, just to make sure I take out my handy Hebrew/English dictionary. I'm scanning and I see what I think is what I'm looking for but, it says that it means "sometimes".
So this is when it goes downhill fast. I'm in loving, patient mother mood (read: I took a nap). So I say OK SL let's use it in a sentence to understand it better:
"Shimon Leib dachuf ach shelo....pa'amayim!"
"Shimon Leib daber chutzpa...pa'amayim!"
"Shimon Leib yeled tov...pa'amayim!"
Now he's rolling with laughter. Later AY comes comes home. We do the same thing with him. We're all in a joyful mood. Everyone is happy they learned a new word. I feel like a good mother, etc.
Then Eric gets home. We talk about they day and I proudly tell him what happened today and how I taught the children a new word. His face was first a smirk, then a giggle, then a full fledged roaring laughter. (For any of you who've seen Eric really laugh you know what I mean). He said Sarah, pa'amayim means twice, l'famim means sometimes."
Oh well, I guess I could always stretch out my maternity leave a little longer until I know the language better.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Only in Israel
So back in the states most museums might have a coat check, or stroller check, if they don't allow strollers. In Israel, they have a weapons check
Tiyul Time!
Yesterday after school, we all piled into the car to go on our somewhat religious Sunday tiyul. Being that my work load is lighter on Sunday, we have the liberty of going out and getting back in before I have to hit the keyboard.
To tell the truth, the only reason we went on this tiyul was to find a book for Sarah. Being that she is going to be home all day with the kids, and not even fasting, she wanted to read something that would get her into the Tisha B'Av spirits, that would also hold her interest. We heard about a new book called "On my Walls Jerusalem" and decided to get it. Since our local bookstore didn't carry it, we figured it's a good excuse to go to Jerusalem.
So, where was I, ah yes. We all piled into the car and drove off into the mid afternoon sun.
Wait a second, I forgot to tell you where we headed off.
We first thought about going to the Biblical zoo, but passed on that as we thought in might not be purely in the spirit of the 9 days. I then recalled the mini model of the old city from the time of the 2nd temple. Ah, that seems like a god idea for the 9 days - to see what we've lost.
So, into the car we piled, and driving off into the mid afternoon sun, we arrived at the Israel Museum. Lucky for us, someone donated some money to the museum, and we saved on the kids admission!
To tell the truth, the only reason we went on this tiyul was to find a book for Sarah. Being that she is going to be home all day with the kids, and not even fasting, she wanted to read something that would get her into the Tisha B'Av spirits, that would also hold her interest. We heard about a new book called "On my Walls Jerusalem" and decided to get it. Since our local bookstore didn't carry it, we figured it's a good excuse to go to Jerusalem.
So, where was I, ah yes. We all piled into the car and drove off into the mid afternoon sun.
Wait a second, I forgot to tell you where we headed off.
We first thought about going to the Biblical zoo, but passed on that as we thought in might not be purely in the spirit of the 9 days. I then recalled the mini model of the old city from the time of the 2nd temple. Ah, that seems like a god idea for the 9 days - to see what we've lost.
So, into the car we piled, and driving off into the mid afternoon sun, we arrived at the Israel Museum. Lucky for us, someone donated some money to the museum, and we saved on the kids admission!
We got in and headed straight for the model. It was incredible. The detail that the builders put into it was amazing.
We wandered around the model for a while, headed over to the Dead Sea Scrolls, and left b/c the kind security guards told us we had to leave.
From there we headed out to Geula to find the sefer/book Sarah was looking for, and hit the jackpot on only our second seforim store. Next we obligingly headed out to Uri's pizza where I got yelled at b/c RM decided to start wandering off almost into the street of Malchei Yisroel. B"H he was fine.
We then piled back into the car and headed home.
Thankfully no one puked on the ride back :o)
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